Midwestern farm, home and outdoor retailer Stock+Field has filed for bankruptcy and plans to close all of its stores by March after 65 years in business, WSJ Pro Bankruptcy reported. Tea Olive I LLC, which does business as Stock+Field, filed for chapter 11 protection on Sunday in the U.S. Bankruptcy Court in St. Paul, Minn. after starting a store closing sale process that is projected to conclude at the end of March. “There have been many challenges in 2020, and Stock+Field was not immune to them,” Matthew F. Whebbe, the company’s chief executive and chairman, said in a post on the retailer’s website. Stock+Field, formerly known as Big R, has 25 stores across Illinois, Indiana, Ohio, Michigan and Wisconsin, as well as two warehouses in Illinois. The retailer changed its name from Big R to Stock+Field in July 2019. “We hope to reopen stores at some point in the future,” Mr. Whebbe said in the post. In court papers, the Eagan, Minn.-based company valued its assets and total debt between $50 million to $100 million. The company said it owes about $29.7 million to asset-based lender Second Avenue Capital Partners LLC and other creditors. The retailer is requesting to use cash collateral pledged to lenders to continue operations and store closing sales to maximize asset values, according to court documents filed yesterday.
